Analysis of the relationship between inputs and outputs is an important challenge for agricultural researchers to know whether the observed fluctuation in crop output can be explained properly through various factors involved in the process. This study analyzes the impact of factors such as fertilizers, highyielding varieties (HYVs), irrigation, rainfall, floods, etc., on the yield of paddy in Assamthe gateway of NorthEastern India. This study uses linear, loglin, and loglinear (CobbDouglas) functional forms to analyze the data. The results show that fertilizers have a positive and significant impact on both the Kharif and Rabi paddy. For a unit increase in fertilizer, about 14% increase in the yield of Kharif paddy was observed during the period of 197172 to 19992000. Except flood, the impact of all other independent variables, viz., proportion of area under HYVs and rainfall are positive. Hence, flood proved to be a major limiting factor in the yield of Kharif paddy; while in the case of Rabi paddy, except irrigation, the impact of all other independent variables are positive on the yield.
Analysis of the relationship between inputs and outputs always deserves great importance in
agriculture. It is an important challenge for most of the agricultural researchers that whether
the observed fluctuation in crop output can be explained properly through various factors of
production, material or non-material. Technological factors such as fertilizer, high yielding
varieties, irrigation, etc., and climatic factors such as rainfall and flood, always play a crucial
role both in the yield as well as in the production of different agricultural crops. However,
in the high rainfall areas of entire North-Eastern India application of such inputs is very less.
Therefore, study on the impact of these factors in the region is quite important to know the
major contributor in agricultural production. Moreover, climatic factors such as rainfall and flood are quite crucial in this high rainfall area. A host of studies such as Dayal (1965), Sagar
(1980), Lahiri and Roy (1985), Parthasarathy et al. (1992), etc., elaborated the importance of
research on rainfall and paddy production. However, a few such as Ballabh and Sharma (1987),
Bera and Kelly (1990), Goswami (2002), etc., established the crucial link between flood and
yield of paddy. In contrast, studies such as Sagar (1980), Hazell and Ramasamy (1986),
Ramasamy et al. (1992), Narayanamoorthy (1996), Shah (1997), etc., defined the importance
of other crucial factors such as fertilizer, irrigation, high-yielding variety (HYV), etc., on the
yield/production of paddy. |
